Free Job Costing Checklist

Check 1: Labor Burden Rate — The Number Most Subs Get Wrong

Your labor burden rate is what an hour of field labor actually costs you, not what you pay the worker. The gap between those two numbers is where most job costing errors start.

A journeyman electrician making $35/hour does not cost you $35/hour. Once you add payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA), workers’ comp insurance, health benefits, paid time off, union contributions (if applicable), and tool allowances, that $35/hour is probably $52-60/hour in fully burdened cost. If you are bidding jobs using the $35 number, you are losing $17-25 on every hour that worker is on-site. On a 2,000-hour job, that is $34,000-50,000 in unrecovered cost.

How to calculate your actual burden rate:

1. Start with the base hourly wage.
2. Add employer payroll taxes (typically 7.65% for FICA plus state unemployment).
3. Add workers’ comp premium (varies by trade and state; electrical contractors in most states pay $4-12 per $100 of payroll).
4. Add health insurance cost per hour (annual premium divided by annual working hours).
5. Add PTO cost per hour (paid days off times daily rate, divided by annual working hours).
6. Add union benefits or pension contributions if applicable.
7. Add per-hour cost of tools, vehicles, and field supplies allocated to labor.

The resulting number is your burdened rate. Use this number in every estimate. Not the wage. The burdened rate.

CFMA’s 2025 benchmarker tracked 1,558 specialty trade companies — the average net margin before taxes was 7.7%, with top-quartile firms at 14.2%. Every miscalculated burden rate erodes that margin.

Run this check at: Bid stage (to make sure you are using current numbers) and annually (because insurance, workers’ comp, and benefit costs change every year).

Check 2: Materials Markup — Are You Covering Procurement Costs?

Materials markup is not profit. It is cost recovery. Every material purchase involves procurement time, delivery coordination, storage, waste, theft, and returns. If you are passing materials through at cost, you are subsidizing the project.

Standard markup ranges by trade:

• Electrical materials: 15-25% markup on commodity items (wire, boxes, fittings), 10-15% on specified equipment (switchgear, panels)
• Mechanical/plumbing: 15-20% on pipe and fittings, 10-15% on fixtures and equipment
• Fire protection: 10-20% depending on material type

What the markup covers:

• Procurement labor (someone spent time pricing, ordering, and tracking delivery)
• Delivery and handling
• Storage on-site or at your yard
• Waste factor (typically 5-10% depending on material type)
• Price escalation risk between bid day and installation
• Small tools and consumables that get used up on-site

The check: Compare your bid markup against your actual procurement costs from the last 3-5 completed jobs. If your markup is not covering procurement costs, you are donating labor to the GC.

Construction materials are up 40.5% since February 2020 (BLS PPI). If your markup percentages have not been revisited since 2022, they are likely insufficient to cover actual procurement costs in the current market.

Run this check at: Bid stage and mid-job (to catch material price increases that erode your markup).